Trainers

Trainer: Benjamin Wolter

Biography: Benjamin Wolter was born in San Luis Obispo, CA. His family moved to Bloomington while he was very young, and he has been in Bloomington since, aside from his attendance at St. Cloud State University. After a long history of working in the food service industry he decided it was a time for a change of pace. Looking at his past, he noticed that he had always been good with dogs, and decided to become a dog trainer. Benjamin came across BloomingPaws and instantly got a job as a Group Play Guardian. During his first year as a guardian, he started attending the Pet Training Program at Top Tier K9 Dog Trainer School. There, he was awarded his Pet Trainer Certification at Mountain State Academy under the supervision of Top Tier’s CEO & Founder Jeff Minder and Mount State K9 Academy’s Kari Koch. After receiving his pet trainer certification, he became assistant trainer under Alex Snowberger at BloomingPaws. He then set his eyes toward the Working Dog Program at Top Tier K9 to help get some more experience and knowledge training working dogs. This program has taught Benjamin how to imprint and forecast dogs in protection, tracking, scent detection, and advanced obedience.

Benjamin has one dog, a Rottweiler named Iorek, who he as brought through the Top Tier K9’s Puppy Imprinting Program. He loves to take Iorek to the lake to swim and retrieve things that Benjamin throws in the water. He also takes Iorek on many walks down town and other public spaces. Benjamin has been a musician since he picked up piano at the age of 7. On the weekends, you can catch Benjamin under his DJ handle Vibe Rayshun at the local nightlife scene.

Philosophy & Goals: I truly believe that any dog can be trained at any age with any person. The only requirement is having fun training and being consistent in your training. I don’t believe in a purely positive approach, or one that is physically dominant. At Top Tier K9 I learned what is called “balanced training” which is using both positive and negative motivations to teach your dog what you want them to do and what you do not. As long as you practice this, you and your dog will live a much more fulfilled and overall stress-free cohabitation.Also I am currently working on a thesis combining my two passions, music and dogs. The idea being that I would be using music with specific tones to calm down dogs that may be anxious, fearful, or aggressive. I hope that with this knowledge I can help animal shelters and rescue kennels around the world with any dogs path to rehabilitation.